Your Shepherd is the One Feeding You

by Laurette Willis, Director of PraiseMoves, LLC – www.PraiseMoves.com

“The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

In Hebrew, Jehovah Rohi (ro-hee) means “Jehovah, my Shepherd.” Appropriately, rohi means “to feed.” It is first used in Genesis 37:2 when Joseph, “being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers.”

When we say, “The Lord is my shepherd,” we are saying “The Lord is the one who feeds me.”

God wants to be the supplier of your every need. It is His great pleasure and desire to feed and care for you. There is an enemy, however, who also wants to “feed” you. His feeding program involves “junk food” for the spirit, soul and body.

From the ages of 7 to 29, I spent twenty-two years of my life partaking of the enemy’s spiritual junk food in the form of New Age religion, yoga, metaphysics, psychism, channeling demonic spirits, and a host of other dead-end (and deadly) spiritual practices. It all looked so bright and glittering, so appealing—so attractive.

The dangerous thing about “devil food,” however, is that while it may seem to satisfy for the moment, it has no nutritive value, is addictive, and the devil is a cruel and jealous shepherd. Jesus said of him, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy,” but He added: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Spiritual junk food can be found in many places. The enemy knows that people have a spiritual hunger as keen as any physical hunger. Spiritual junk food can even be found in some churches, not unlike the Pharisees whom Jesus spoke against in His day. “Blind guides,” He called them in Matthew 23. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”

I grew up in such a church. There was a lot of pomp and pageantry, a lot of form, but little substance—and I never heard the message of salvation there. I was taught that my being sprinkled on the head as a baby and belonging to the church was what kept me on the “good side” of God, assuring me a place in heaven. I was easy prey for the enemy’s lies in the New Age and human potential movement, the religions of pride and arrogance.

Soul-ish junk food titillates the mind and emotions. There is also a spiritual element to these distractions and addictions that affect our will and decision-making. For one it may be cry-in-your-beer country music. For another it may be dime store romance novels (the non-Christian variety). For someone else it may be horror movies or R-rated music videos, soap operas, risqué “reality” shows or video games…the list of distractions goes on and on.

Physical junk food—I think you already know that one! The more chemical processing a food has undergone, the more your body has to work to digest, assimilate and extract its nutrition (what little there may be of it!). Many processed foods contain “excitotoxins,” biochemical substances that react with the brain and may be responsible for a host of neurological and physical disorders including seizures, migraines, autism, certain types of obesity and allergies. For some, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour products and caffeine can be more addictive than cocaine. Some nutritionists believe this may be due to the concentrated nature of these substances.

The nutrition in food items still in their original God-designed wrappers (like fruit and vegetables) and minimally processed foods are more readily absorbed by the body and have positive energy-producing, life-giving effects on us.

Who’s your shepherd—who is feeding you?

Take a look at the food you regularly consume physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Would any of it qualify as “junk food”? Ask God to help you discern between what good, nutritious food is for you and what is unhealthy.

Print out the list below and write your answers under each category:

Spiritual Nutrition                                              Spiritual Junk Food

_____________________________      _____________________________

_____________________________      _____________________________

_____________________________      _____________________________

Mental/Emotional Nutrition                         Mental/Emotional Junk Food

_____________________________      _____________________________

_____________________________      _____________________________

_____________________________      _____________________________

Physical Nutrition                                             Physical Junk Food

_____________________________      _____________________________

_____________________________      _____________________________

_____________________________      _____________________________

What do items in this column have in common? What do items in this column have in common?

Today, would you be willing to exchange a negative item in each category for a positive item? Instead of drinking diet sodas today, could you drink ice cold or sparkling water? Instead of watching the divas of daytime drama, could you watch a favorite Bible teacher on TV, or listen to worship music, or write in your journal…?

Just taking something negative out of our life rarely works. It has to be replaced with something positive—and filling.

Did you know you can be filled—with God? Listen to these Holy Spirit-inspired words from your brother Paul in the book of Ephesians:

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

He would not have asked God to grant it if it were not possible for us to receive it. I invite you to take the words of Paul and make them into a scriptural affirmation for yourself. Speak them as a personal prayer for yourself and your loved ones—and be filled with all the fullness of God!

And now I’d like to invite you to learn about our new PraiseFast weight loss program, receive a free “Fit Favorites Devotional” and PraiseMoves FitNews. To get yours, go to http://praisemoves.com.

© Laurette Willis 2009

Christian Fitness Expert and author Laurette Willis is the Director of PraiseMoves, offering fitness programs, DVDs, books and training for those interested in a Christian alternative to yoga, and fitness for spirit, soul and body at http://praisemoves.com . To follow Laurette on Twitter visit http://twitter.com/Fit4Christ and on FaceBook: http://facebook.com/praisemoves